Southern Netherlands

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Template:Netherlands state

The Southern Netherlands were a part of the Low Countries controlled by Spain (Spanish Netherlands, 1579-1713), Austria (Austrian Netherlands, 1713-1794) and France (1794-1815). This region comprised most of modern Belgium (except the prince-bishopric of Liège, which was an autonomous, neutral part of the German Holy Roman Empire) and Luxembourg (including the homonymous present Belgian province) as well as, before 1678, much of north-western France.

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Their place in the broader Netherlands

As they were very wealthy, the Netherlands in general were a jewel in the ever-debt-burdened Habsburg crown, but unlike others of the Habsburg dominions, they were led by a merchant class. It was the merchant economy which made them wealthy and its over-taxation, to pay for Habsburg wars1, which was a major factor in their proud defence of ancient privileges. This together with resistance to the religious intolerance of the staunchly catholic Spanish monarchy meant that for two major reasons, they became a permanent headache and finally were lost: first the Northern Netherlands in 1581. The Southern Netherlands were lost to France under Napoleon (who made the separate United Provinces of the Netherlands the puppet Batavian Republic, later becoming the Kingdom of Holland). The loss was confirmed at the 1815 Congress of Vienna.

The Congress first joined the Southern Netherlands to the former Batavian Republic as the United Kingdom of the Netherlands under the House of Orange-Nassau, but with the south-eastern third of Luxembourg Province made into the autonomous Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, because it was claimed by both the Netherlands and Prussia.

The kingdom was split in 1830, with the predominantly Roman Catholic southern half becoming independent as the Kingdom of Belgium (the northern half being predominantly Calvinist). The autonomy of Luxembourg was recognised in 1839, but an instrument to that effect was not signed until 1867. The King of the Netherlands was Grand Duke of Luxembourg until 1890, when William III was succeeded by his daughter, Wilhelmina of the Netherlands - but Luxembourg still followed the Salic law at the time, which forbade a woman to rule in her own right, so the union of the Dutch and Luxembourger crowns then ended. The north-western two-thirds of the original Luxembourg remains a province of Belgium. The flags of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (Template:Flagicon) and of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (Template:Flagicon) are still distinguished only in the tint of their colours.

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Spanish Netherlands

The Spanish Netherlands in broad sense were the Seventeen Provinces, that came under Habsburg rule after 1482. After 1556 they were under the Spanish Habsburg branch. The northern provinces separated from Habsburg rule during the Eighty Years' War (1568-1648) and became the independent United Provinces after the Oath of Abjuration of 1581. The southern provinces remained under Habsburg rule and formed the Spanish Netherlands in strict sense.

The Spanish Netherlands originally consisted of the whole of the

The capital was Brussels in Brabant.

In the early seventeenth century there was a flourishing court at Brussels, which was under the government of King Philip III's sister Archduchess Isabella and her husband, Archduke Albert of Austria. Among the artists who emerged from the court of the "Archdukes," as they were known, was Peter Paul Rubens. Under the Archdukes, the Spanish Netherlands actually had formal independence from Spain, but with Albert's death in 1621 they returned to formal Spanish control, although the childless Isabella remained on as Governor until her death in 1633.

The failing wars intended to regain the 'heretical' Northern Netherlands meant significant loss of (still mainly catholic) territories in the north, which was consolidated in the 1648 Westphalian peace, and given the peculiar, inferior status of Generality Lands (jointly ruled by the United Republic, not admitted as member provinces) : Zeeuws-Vlaanderen (south of the river Scheldt), the present Dutch province of Noord-Brabant and Maastricht (in the present Dutch province of Limburg).

In the wars between the French and the Spanish in the Seventeenth Century, the territory of the Spanish Netherlands was repeatedly nipped at. The French annexed Artois and Cambrai by the Treaty of the Pyrenees of 1659, and Dunkirk was ceded to the English. By the Treaties of Aix-la-Chapelle (ending the War of Devolution in 1668) and Nijmegen (ending the Franco-Dutch War in 1678), further territory up to the current Franco-Belgian border was ceded, including most of Walloon Flanders (around the city of Lille), as well as much of Hainault (including Valenciennes). In the later War of the Reunions, and the Nine Years War France annexed other parts of the region.

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Austrian Netherlands

Under the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), following the War of the Spanish Succession, what was left of the Spanish Netherlands was ceded to Austria and thus became known as the Austrian Netherlands. However, the Austrians themselves generally had little interest in the region (aside from a short-lived attempt by Emperor Charles VI to compete with British and Dutch trade through the Ostend Company), and the fortresses along the border (the Barrier Fortresses) were, by treaty, garrisoned with Dutch troops. The area had, in fact, been given to Austria largely at British and Dutch insistence, as these powers feared potential French domination of the region.

Throughout the latter part of the eighteenth century, the principal foreign policy goal of the Habsburg rulers was to exchange the Austrian Netherlands for Bavaria, which would round out Habsburg possessions in southern Germany. The Austrian Netherlands rebelled against Austria in 1788 as a result of Joseph II's centralizing policies. The different countries established the United States of Belgium (January 1790). Austrian imperial power was restored by Joseph's brother and successor, Leopold II by the end of 1790.

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French occupation

After the French Revolution, in 1794 the entire region (including territories that were never under Habsburg rule, like the Bishopric of Liège) was overrun by France ending the existence of this territory as Spanish/Austrian Netherlands. It became an integral part of France, and was divided into départements:

Austria confirmed the loss of its territories by the Treaty of Campo Formio, in 1797.

After the defeat of Napoleon in 1815 the region was given to the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, however after the Belgian Revolution of 1830 it separated and became the independent state of Belgium.

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See also

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Footnote

el:Νότιες Κάτω Χώρες fr:Pays-Bas espagnols nl:Zuidelijke Nederlanden

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